Fun Fact 2: Uranus was discovered in 1781 by English astronomer William Herschel. He named it Georgium Sidus in honour of King George III, the planet was renamed in the mid 19th century. The name Uranus was suggested by German astronomer Johann Elert Bode; it was considered more in keeping with other planetary names
Fun Fact 3: How far is the planet Uranus away from the Sun? Uranus is 2871 million km away from the sun; it is the sixth furthest planet from the Sun in our Solar System
Fun Fact 4: How big is Uranus? The planet Uranus has a diameter of 51,118 km; it is the third largest planet in our Solar System after Jupiter and Saturn
Fun Fact 5: Uranus, Jupiter, Saturn and Neptune mainly consist of gases; collectively they are called the outer planets
Fun Fact 6: What is it like on the surface of planet Uranus? Uranus is a gas planet consisting of mainly hydrogen, helium and rock. There is no solid surface on Uranus therefore no space craft are able to land there
Fun Fact 7: The atmosphere of Uranus is blue in color this is due to methane which absorbs red light causing a blue green haze
Fun Fact 8: Uranus has a series of rings surrounding the planet. Eleven rings orbit the planet, with ring particles measuring from the size of a grain of sand to around a metre in diameter
Fun Fact 9: Does the planet Uranus have any moons? There are twenty seven known moons and satellites that orbit the planet and they are all named after characters in English literature; they are characters in William Shakespeare plays. Moon names include: Cordelia (King Lear), Ophelia (Hamlet), Desdemona (Othello), Juliet (Romeo and Juliet), Rosalind (As You Like It) and Ariel (The Tempest)
Fun Fact 10: German astronomer Johann Elert Bode discovered that Uranus was a planet and not a star as previously thought. It was Johann's son, John Herschel that was responsible for naming all of Uranus's moons after William Shakespeare characters
Fun Fact 11: The three biggest moons that orbit planet Uranus are; Titania (1,578 km in diameter) Oberon (1523 km in diameter) and Umbriel (1,578 km in diameter)
Fun Fact 12: It take Uranus just over 84 Earth years to orbit the sun, one day is just under 18 hours of an Earth day
Fun Fact 13: Did you know that Uranus is the only planet that spins on its side! Scientists think that this is due to a collision millions of years ago
Fun Fact 14: U.S. Space probe Voyager 2 visited Uranus in 1986; it is the only spacecraft that has visited the planets Uranus and Neptune to date
Fun Fact 15: Voyager 2 was launched by NASA on August 20, 1977 to study the outer Solar System. It discovered that the rings surrounding the planet were different from other planets and were relatively young. It is likely that the rings formed many years after the planet existed and could contain remnants of a moon |
